G5 Tower or G5 imac? 1

[annadesigner]

I realise this isn't maybe the right place to post this exactly - but would really appreciate any opinions from people who use Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign on either of these machines.

I need to upgrade my computer and am faced with the dilemma of either;
spending a bit less (£350 less) on a new G5 20" imac 1.8Ghz with 1GB RAM,

or going spending that extra and getting a G5 Dual 1.8Ghz with 1 GB RAM with a 19" screen (that is less pretty)

I am kind of tempted to go for the imac (budget and beauty) - but am concerned that without the dual processor I may encounter problems with speed/dealing with large print files in Ill or Photoshop ....

Any opinions or experiences people are willing to offer would be great to hear.

many thanks
anna

 

[jimoblak]

One of the computers that I use for Adobe CS is an iMac and it works well. If you already have a monitor from your existing computer, there is little financial reason to invest in an iMac and the extra display that comes built in. A tower with the same processing power as the iMac should be cheaper and you would have more hardware upgrade options. ...but gee whiz, those iMacs are cute machines!

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[annadesigner]

that's kind of what i wanted to hear...
I'm actually on a G3 powerbook at the moment - so am going to have to get a screen separately if I go with the tower idea. If you reckon that the G5 single processor doesn't have any issues with handling Adobe CS then that's good news... I can get something that matches my ipod (!).
cheers,
anna

 

[jmgalvin]

There should be no great performance problems with the iMac - as long as you add a gig of RAM for best performance. I use a G4 1.25 mhz Powermac (with 1.25 gigs of ram and 64 of vram) and suffer no problems at all.

The things that are always running are Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Word, Entourage, and Safari. Quark is also common. Again, I have no problems. I use a 21' Studio Display (CRT)

The one thing I don't like about the 20' iMac or Apple 20 inch display is that I cannot see an 8.5 X 11 page at full size because the height cannot fit. The 20' is not tall enough to fit 11' vertical on the screen. The ones that are not "wide screen" give more height at the loss of width.

If I had to get a new machine, I'd probably opt for the bottom of the line G5 Powermac + RAM (not from Apple) for the sole reason that I could use a monitor that I liked better - height wise.

 

[annadesigner]

thanks jm,
cool advice, as ever.
anna
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[SimonDavis]

I have a G5 tower, which was awful when I bought it, but after adding 1gb of RAM, absolutley flies.

It's a single 1.8ghz.

I use photoshop all the time, and it runs as fast on the Mac as my Windows box, which is a 3.2ghz pentium 4.

Tip for you though, if you don't already do it - I use 2 Sumsung 17" monitors, the card in the Tower G5 runs them both (you'll need a DVI/VGA and an ADC/VGA convertor - the DVi comes with the machine, the ADC you have to buy), and using 2 screens is an awesome way to work.

Photoshop for example I have a whole screen for the pic, and move the menus to the second screen. Same for Dreamweaver. Once you try it, you'll never go back!

OK, but basically the answer is 1 x 1.8 is fine for this kind of thing, so long as you upgrade the RAM.

 

[annadesigner]

cheers simon,

i've actually bought the G5 imac, single 1.8, with an extra 1GB of RAM, and it seems to be doing the trick.

Thanks for the tip about using the two screens - I have a G3 powerbook which ideally I'd like to sort out making work with the Imac screen so as to be able to work across the two screen areas... not sure that it's actually going to be possible from the imac though...

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts - REALLY glad it wasn't a "don't buy a G5 imac - they're rubbish" post - think I would have cried!

anna

 

[SimonDavis]

heh. Well you'll be very happy.

Coincidentally, I spent a tortured 2 days working out how to make an adapter for the ADC output to a VGA screen (I live in Brazil where you can't buy such things), so if you can track down the pinouts for the powerbook screen, I can probably map you the connections. Your only problem will be the power, as I'm not sure what that would be for the LCD screen, but let me know if you want me to do a bit of research.

 

[annadesigner]

thanks simon,

really kind of you to offer your research skills, I think I'll have a bash at trying to find out how I might be able to do it.... and then I may well come knocking at your door in a day or two if I still can't work it out!

cheers for now,
i'll keep you updated on my progress (or not)
anna
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